The Dad Roller-Coaster...

I wanted to give everyone Dad's latest update.  Yesterday Dad had his open-heart surgery.  We got to his room around 5:30 and were able to spend about 30 minutes with him before they started doping him up on anesthesia.  They took him back and started his surgery around 9 am.  They were really good about calling us about every hour and updating us.  The updates sounded good.  The original plan was to take out Dad's aortic valve and replace it, and to do one bypass.  They did tell us pretty early on that Dr. Ogle had decided not to do the bypass, but we didn't know why.  We had lots of family and friends visit during the surgery and that helped to pass the time.  Mom, Lindsey, and I all felt very at peace all day.

FINALLY, around 5:30 they called us back into the conference room.  Dad was out of surgery and being taken back to the Cardio-Thorasic Unit.  Dr. Ogle came in and started telling us about the surgery.  We were so excited that he was in recovery, and that's when he dropped the first bomb.  He basically said that Dad was fortunate to make it out of the OR.  He said there was so much dead tissue and infection around his heart.  He said the infection was much worse than he had originally thought and that he had to remove soo much heart tissue and graft new tissue over it.  He said the reason he couldn't perform the bypass was because there was another absess (infected pus pocket) around some artery and it would have been too risky.  He told us lots of things about the surgery that just made me think "just don't even tell me...I don't even want to hear it."  He painted a very grim picture and said recovery will be very dicey.  He said there are several problems that could come up, mostly because of the severe infection on dad's heart (which we still don't have any idea why it was there in the first place).  Anyway - before the surgery I thought that as soon as he was in recovery I would feel a million times better...I didn't care how many tubes were coming out of him, but that if he was in recovery I would feel awesome.  After talking to the doctor, I didn't feel that way at all.  But obviously we want him to be honest with us.  He also said that because he had to take out so much dead tissue and graft so much new tissue that another issue will be whether or not the sutures hold during the swelling process.  He asked if we had any questions, and I couldn't think of anything to say, although I had a million thoughts running through my head.  I think I was just in shock of all that he said.  We did get to see Dad later, but he was still asleep from anesthesia.

Obviously we didn't sleep real well last night.  But they have a number we can call straight to the CTU and my mom called a couple of times, and then again at 6:30 this morning.  His nurse said that considering the severity of his surgery he was doing better than they expected.  We got to see him around 8:15, and he was awake. He was still on the ventilator, but was trying to communicate to us by making different motions, and even trying to draw letters in the air to spell things.  They had us leave around 8:45 this morning so they could try to wean him off the ventilator.  After a couple of hours, they decided his oxygen levels were still just a little too low, so they are going to try to take him off the vent tomorrow.  We got to go back in and see him.  His nurse let him have some paper and a pen and he was trying to write things.  He wrote "noon" and mom said "yes, it's about noon right now."  Then he wrote (and all in very unlegible handwriting) "operation done?"  Mom said "yes, you are all done, your surgery is over."  He gave a thumbs up sign.  They have been giving him some mild sedatives all day just because he's still on the vent and they just want him to get as much rest and sleep as he can.  When we went back at the 4:00 visiting hour, he got out his pen again and wrote to us "I never had surgery?"  We said, yes, Dad, your surgery is over!  You just rest and keep recovering.  We are so proud of you."  He again would give us thumbs up and asked for ice chips.  Lindsey (our nurse interpreter...she has to explain everything to us) looked at his levels and thought things looked pretty good.  He does have a fever, which is not the best.  Obviously, a fever is semi-normal at this stage of the game, but with him having a severe infection, we just want it to go away!  We got to see him again at the last little visiting hour and he seemed even more like himself (well, as much as he can when he pretty much can't move anything but his eyes and hands...but it still seemed good to us.)  By now, we are used to seeing him with tubes and medical stuff all over his body.

PLEASE PLEASE keep praying for the following things -
1 - That the infection would continue to LEAVE his body.  His surgeon thinks it is more viral than bacterial, which means anti-biotics won't treat his infection.  Pray that this won't cause any complications.
2 - That his sutures would hold while heart tissue is swelling.
3 - Complete healing and recovery.
4 - That he will be able to get off the ventilator soon.

We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for praying for Dad and for us.  We know our God is in control and that He is a mighty healer.  We are trusting Him in this difficult time and praying for dad to be healed in a mighty way.